In the Forest
by Swing123
Summary: A very small scale short story to warm myself back up for potential future projects. Calvin has been taken on a camping trip with a new babysitter. Upon her disappearance, the boy realizes he is not alone in the forest.


I stared blankly into the fire pit in front of me. Although the fire was close to dying out, it still decently illuminated the wooded area around me. Beside me, I heard the annoying laughter of the teenage couple I was being forced to interact with.

The female of the couple was charged with "babysitting me", as my parents, despite my legitimate argument to convince them otherwise, decided that a six year old could not properly take care of himself for two lousy nights. Being an inventor and having saved the world numerous times against aliens, mad scientists and giant brain eating bugs, I was of course shocked at their conclusion. The regular babysitter, whom I despised anyway, was not available, so they instead brought this loon.

This went as predicted. The girl suggested I come along for an overnight camping trip with her boyfriend, which I'm pretty sure she did not clear with my parents beforehand. Hobbes, my old buddy and roommate, managed to hide and get away at the last second, so he got to escape having to deal with this... Stupid tiger... I'll get him for that...

But as it turned out, her boyfriend had an equal intelligence level to her, which was comparable to that of a brain dead monkey... and that's being insulting to the monkey... On this camping trip, he had managed to sneak several alcoholic beverages from his parents' house, and the couple were now incoherent and slobbering all over each others' faces. It's quite pitiful to look at, really.

"Hey Calvin, Chris and I are gonna go over into the trees for a little bit. Don't wander off, okay?"

I stared at my babysitter for a long moment, trying to decide the proper acknowledgment for that.

"You do realize this is horror movie setup to the max right?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh we won't be long, I promise." She said in a teasing manner, more towards her boyfriend than to me.

"Sounds like you two have a great relationship." I sighed. "Sure, I'll humor you."

She stood up and blinked a couple times.

"You do remember to not tell your parents about this right?" She stuttered, slightly.

I tapped my chin in thought. Now that I consider it, I might be able to use this to my advantage.

"Yeah, sure... secrets and stuff." I nodded. "You two have fun, I'll just sit here and be vulnerable."

Clearly not needing another reason, the two quickly vanished into darkness of the residing forest.

I sighed and looked back down at the dying fire. Around me I could hear the sounds of crickets and birds chirping. In the distance, I still heard the rather unintelligent and off putting sounds of the couple. So far, after hanging out with them, I've been able to add seven new words to my vocabulary. I look forward to running them past Hobbes and my parents for review.

"I wonder what Hobbes is doing right now." I thought to myself, out loud. "He better not be getting into our cabinet again to raid the tuna... He always makes a giant mess and my parents blame me for it. I swear, sometimes that cat..."

Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of my babysitter and her boyfriend's loud and panicked screaming.

I looked up. They seemed decently far, but not by much. I listened as the screaming continued. It was that classic horror movie scream, and I could hear twigs and branches snapping as if they were frantically running away from something. Then, as suddenly as it began, the screaming was abruptly cut off, plunging the forest into an eerie silence.

I blinked a couple times and sighed.

At this point, I was presented with two options. I could either ignore the screams and continue about my evening, claiming ignorance to my parents when they came home and asked about the missing babysitter... Or I could go and investigate and most certainly die some kind of gruesome death.

...

Curse my sense of adventure...

I stood up and stretched a kink out of my neck.

"Alright... I'm coming..." I muttered, trudging into the darkness myself.

I walked for a good twenty or thirty seconds, stepping over fallen trees and large boulders, before I finally came to a small clearing.

I squinted through the darkness, my only light being the slight illumination from the moon, before my eyes caught something. A woman I didn't recognize was kneeling in the grass with her head down and her back to me. She wore a white nightgown which was covered in dirt and grime, and her long blond hair was messy and matted and had twigs stuck in it. I could hear the very quiet sound of her whispering to herself.

Relieved to finally see someone half way normal looking, I confidently approached her.

"Hey lady!" I called out. "I'm looking for a couple teenagers that might have come through here. One of them is wearing a sideways baseball cap, the other has way too much makeup on... They both probably had pretty vacant expressions on their faces... Have you happened to see them?"

The woman stopped whispering. She slowly lifted her head, and turned it towards me. It was then that I noticed her eyes. They were completely white, with no iris or pupils. Slightly taken aback by this turn of events, I stopped walking and my eyes narrowed.

"I have seen them." She said quietly, her eyes growing wide and a very slight grin beginning to spread across her face, revealing teeth covered in what I assumed was blood.

I stared at her for a short moment.

"You seem like the kind of person who would." I nodded. "Care to point me in their general direction?"

"They're with my sisters." The woman whispered once again, now beginning to tremble slightly. "They will be a part of tonight's ritual... Our father will return, stronger than ever..."

I nodded.

"Well that sounds great. Good to know they're safe. Would you mind handing them over to me? I'm kind of in charge of looking after the little cretins."

The woman stood up.

"You will not interfere with the rituals!" She shrieked pointing a bony finger at me. "Unless you wish to take their place on the alter!"

"Whoa now, let's not be going crazy here." I said holding my hands up. "That would imply that I liked these people. I barely want to admit I know them."

"Leave this place and speak of this to no one!" The woman screeched. "The ritual must be completed before the moon cycle changes!"

"Right, moon cycle. That's... that's something I care about." I shrugged. "Have it your way, you're making my night easier as it is. Knock yourself the heck out."

I turned and started away. Clearly I did everything I could. This person seemed to know what they were doing, so who am I to doubt their wisdom? Even if they don't, I'm sure this 'father' person will straighten things out by morning. Unless, of course, that's some evil demon thing she's talking about... In which case, it would probably try to destroy the world or something... I would probably have to deal with that... for an undetermined amount of time... that could cut into all the nothing I had planned for tomorrow...

Darn...

I stopped. I heaved a deep sigh, knowing I could no longer avoid dealing with this and turned back around. The woman was still staring at me with her arm outstretched, pointing at me.

"Alright..." I muttered, starting back towards her. "Changed my mind. Decided I gotta stop ya now."

The woman stared at me for a moment, before she threw her head back and laughed. It was a deep, rather demonic sounding laugh, and it only confirmed to me that I was simply preventing future headache.

I patiently waited for her to finish, before I continued.

"You have thirty seconds to return the morons to me before I get violent." I grumbled, crossing my arms. "Be forewarned, I scratch and bite."

"You helpless child! You think you can stop the rise of our father into the physical realm?!" She cackled.

"More than likely." I nodded.

She advanced towards me. It was then that I noticed that several dark figures were beginning to surround me. They were all wearing black cloaks that hid their faces, and the forest was suddenly filled with ominous whispering.

I chuckled and reached into my pocket pulling out an old portable CD player. The paint was scratched and it showed several signs of wear from the countless adventures it's accompanied me on, but to me it always looked brand new.

"You catch all that, MTM?" I grinned, holding the CD player in front of me as a weapon.

"Hm? Sorry, wasn't really paying attention. I'm sure I'll adapt." Came a smooth, almost bored sounding voice with a British accent from the speaker of the player. "These people look friendly. Shall I give them a proper greeting?"

"Sure, why not?" I agreed. "Let's try and be done with this before 11, shall we? I was kind of looking forward to tonight's Doctor Who episode."

"On it."

Upon that statement, the hooded figures were upon me. I pushed a button on the MTM, and the forest was lit up, followed by the sound of electricity crackling.

Hobbes is going to be so jealous when I tell him about everything he missed out on.


End file.
